Improvement in trusses



UNITED STATES ATnNT Ormes.,

JASON T. BARTLETT AND EDWARD E. BUTMAN, OF BOSTON, MASSA- OHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN TRUSSES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent- No. 37,3l, dat-ed Junuai y 13, 1863.

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, JASON T. BARTLETT and EDWARD E. BUTMAN, citizens ot the United States, and residents of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State ot' Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Trusses i'or the Cure or Alleviation ot' Hernia; and we do hereby declare the same to het'ullj` described in theiollowingspecitication, and represented in the accompanying drawings, ot' which- Figure l denotes a front eleva tion of a truss provided with our invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section ot' the pad, its supportingai m, andthe connections ofthe latter with the spring. Fig. 3 is an elevation of the pad,its socket, and conningscrews.

Ourinvention has for its object the ready and proper adjustment and tixation ot the pad. Its adjustment in any desirable direction is effected through the agency of a balland-socketjoint, its iiXation in position at'ter eat h adjustment being produced by two screws arranged with their axes at a right angle or thereabout. One screw is not sutlicient to hold the pad in place, because it will not prevent the pad from being easily turned in a plane at right angles to the aXis of the screw. "Byhaving two screws going` through the socket-cap and against the ball, and arranging them so that their axes shall be disposed at a right angle with each other, each, when screwed up closely against the ball, will counteract or prevent any movement of the pad in a plane ata right angle with the axis of the other, the two screws cooperating to hold the pad fastin any assumed position. ln our truss the pad-arm is connected with the spring by means ot' a clamp-screw whose head serves as a button for the strap of the spring. ln connection with the said clamp-screw and the spring and arm, we employ on the arm a stud to enter one of a series of holes made in the spring and arranged in the arc ot' a circle concentric with the clamp-screw.

In the drawings, A denotes the pad, while B is the spring, the latter being covered in the usual manner with leather and cloth or other material, and provided with a holdingstrap, at. The pad is directly connected with the spring by means of an arm, C, from or near the outer end of which there is a projecting shank, b, carrying a spherical ball, c. which enters a corresponding socket, d. This socket is formed not only by a semispherical depression ot' the pad-plate e, but by a cap,j', made to partially cover the ball and fastened to the said plate, the said cap being provided with a circular opening or mouth, h, havinga diameter about three times that ofthe shank b. Two screws, D E, arc screwed into and through the cap ofthe socket and against the ball and are so arranged that their axes stand at a right angle, or thereabout, with each other. Furthermore, the arm C is placed iiatwise against the spring and is secured to it by means of a clamp screw, F, which goesthrough the spring and screws into the arm, and has a shoulder, to bear against the spring, the same being as shown in Fig. 2. The spring, near its end, is provided with a series, G, of holes or per'orations, arranged in the arc ot" a circle and concentrically with the clamp-screw. A stud, H, projecting from the outer surface ot the arm O, enters some one ot' the holes of the series G, and serves, with such hole and the clamp-screw, to hold the arm in its position with respect to the spring, which position may be varied by loosening the clamp-screw and changing the stud to another one ot' the series ot' holes.

By means of its peculiar adjusting devices the pad ma-y be adapted with great accuracy to that part of the body of a person against which it may be desirable to have it act, either for the cure or alleviation of hernia.

We claim- The arrangement ot' the two screws D E with tle ball and socket of the pad and its arm O, substantially as specified, the arm being applied to its spring by devices to admit ot' its adjustment, substantially as eX- plained.

JASON T. BARTLETT. EDWD. E. BUTMAN. Vitnesses:

1t. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, Jr. 

